


The Shadow Game

by Amoux



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 06:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6792142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amoux/pseuds/Amoux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the middle of a Capture the Flag game, and Clarisse manages to convince Nico to get in on the action.  Rly shitty short story, not a romance between Clarisse and Nico.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shadow Game

Rings of steel clanging against one another reached the dark haired boy’s ears.  He was crouched in the thick brush, his eyes locked ahead as he played with the skull ring on his middle finger.  He hated being a part of these worthless games.  These demigods...they didn’t know what was out there.  They worried about crossing the river with their shimmering flags.  The worst thing that they had to concerned about was pissing off some angry Ares camper.  They didn’t know what it was like to raise a blade to a monster.  Hell, most of these kids had probably never raised a blade in their life.  

He was roused from his thoughts by the crackling of brush to his left.  He straightened, twisting the ring and it extended into two and a half foot long black blade.  He raised the sword, eyes peeled on the darkness.  And from it, emerged a female.  He could tell by the curve of her armor.  Her face was hidden by a helm, with a red plume that rippled in the wind sticking from the top.  He heard a snarl echo from the metal bucket she wore on her head and she ripped it off.  Clarisse La Rue.  The girl’s stringy brown hair was tangled and dirty, her face and boots caked with mud.  She had a wild look in her eye, like she was getting ready to kill.

She hesitated when she spotted Nico, glaring at the son of Hades.  “What the hell are you doing here, Death Boy?” she growled, approaching him with her spear.  The gleaming tip sparkled with electricity.  Nico had been unfortunate enough to feel its sting before, and he was not eager to do so again, so he watched the weapon with caution.  Maimer, it was called.

“Waiting it out,” he replied simply, his ebon eyes flicking back up to hers.

“What, the fight?”  She glowered at him.  “I guess that’s all you’re worth for, huh Di Angelo.  Sitting things out.”  

Nico’s fist curled around the hilt of his blade.  Wearing a red plume wouldn’t keep him from lunging at her.  She had no idea what she was talking about...he had done far more than her.  Seen more than her.  But she knew exactly what she was doing.  Making him angry.  It was a common hobby for the children of Ares.  “Maybe I’m just sick of fighting.”

Clarisse snorted, like he had said something funny.  “Get used to it, kid.  Fighting’s what we’re all about.”  She grabbed his shoulder, yanking him up so that he was standing straight, and then the hilt of his blade, ramming it into his stomach.  Nico cringed, but he didn’t react.  Clarisse was far bigger than him, and he knew that any fight with her would end up with either her falling through a tear in the ground or him with a broken nose.  

“You need to get in the game.  You’re coming with me.”

“And if I don’t?”  Nico tested, his eyes steely.  He didn’t appreciate being told what to do, especially by a bully like Clarisse.

She had turned away to storm back into the battle.  But upon hearing Nico’s worse she stopped, so that he could only see the back of her head.  Finally she turned, her amber eyes narrowed, but at the same time, surprised.  “Are you deaf?” she growled, turning around to face him.  She jerked a finger in the direction behind her, where Nico could hear the sounds of steel clashing, campers screaming their guttural war cries.  “They whisper behind your back all the time, kid.  They say you’re worthless, and a freak..”  She sneered.  “And all you do is just sit there and prove that they’re right.  Whatever.”  She turned back and disappeared through the brush.

Nico stared at where she had disappeared for a long while.  He slowly lowered down until he was crouching, and with his sword turned it over a couple times, watching his reflection in the black blade.  No, he wasn’t deaf.  He definitely heard the whispers, the rumors.  And like always, he ignored them.  Looked away as he passed the campers.  Pretended he couldn’t hear.  But he always could.

The reflection in the blade used to be a stranger.  Pale, dark eyes sunken in and tired, his face as skeletal as the ones he rules over.  Now, that stranger was all too familiar.  It was him.  But even he could see the power.  It radiated from him.  A son of Hades.  A Prince of the Dead.  A prince that was being laughed at.  

He stood up, grasping his sword with new purpose as he followed Clarisse’s footsteps through the brush.  “Clarisse?” He spotted her then.  She had barely moved fifteen feet away from him, he just couldn’t see her through the branches and leaves.  She leaned lazily against a tree, her helmet tucked under one arm, the other grasping her spear.  

When she saw him, she smirked knowingly and straightened.  “Thought you’d see it my way.  Time to kick some butt.”

 

“Those smart bastards,” Clarisse hissed.  The two gazed at the clearing where the flag was being held.  The flag was in between two stones, it appeared to have been shoved in there.  It would require a good deal of yanking to remove it.  The two guards were standing appropriately, ten feet away from it.  He recognized one of them immediately.  Will Solace, a son of Apollo, and a boy he didn’t know with messy red hair.  “There are mines placed around the flag.”

“How can you tell?” Nico whispered, narrowing his eyes, trying to see the mines.  He couldn’t, all he could see was just the grass.

“I can sense it.”  Clarisse slowly looked around, her eyes focused.  “There,” she elbowed Nico in the ribs and Nico followed her gaze.  He could see three silhouettes tied to trees.  The prisoners, two of her siblings and a son of Dionysus.  “We need to untie them.”

“I can get over there,” Nico promised and she made a grunt.

“And how are you going to do that?”

“I can move unseen when I want to.”

She was quiet for a long moment, thinking.  She might not have been the smartest person, but he knew she could devise some pretty intelligent schemes where battle is involved.  She knew what his strengths were, as well.  Finally, she nodded.  “All right.  Untie the losers, then give me a sign when you’ve done it.”

Nico didn’t reply.  He merely moved away from her.  Manipulating shadow was natural for him.  He merely had to concentrate.  He felt a small tug in his gut and suddenly the shade that veiled him from sight began to thicken, until it was like gazing into a mist of shadow.  It kept him concealed as he slowly made his way over to the captured campers.

He moved like a ghost would, silently and unseen, picking his way through the thick tanglement of undergrowth, watching out for twigs that could easily snap, even under his frail excuse for a body.  Eventually, he came to the large tree that they were tied to, their shoulders being squashed against one another.  

He came up from behind, grasping his sword tightly and when he reached them, he leaned forward.  His whisper startled the son of Dionysus, causing him to jerk for a moment, but he went still as he listened to Nico’s words.  “Stay still, and attack on my signal,” and the stygian ice blade sliced through the ropes.  

 

Will Solace could pick things out faster than the other campers, even among his siblings.  The children of Apollo were gifted with supreme eyesight.  He had good instinct, the instinct of a hunter.  And right now, his instinct was telling him that something is wrong.  He shifted uneasily, looking back at the flag as if to make sure that it was still there.  It was.  He glanced over at Darius, the son of Hermes.  “See anything?” he muttered and Darius shook his head, looking over at Will curiously.

“Nah.  You?”  Will shook his head.  He didn’t.  And it was frustrating him.

At least, he didn’t until he saw the black mist.  Like the mist from a bog it began to rise up from the ground, shadowy and dark.  It made Will’s skin crawl and he took a step back, his hand tightening around his bow and he drew an arrow back half way.  It began to stretch towards them like a hand.  “Keep an eye on the flag!” he said.  This was no natural fog.  This was an attack.  Darius nodded, both hands wrapped around the leather hilt of his broadsword.

The darkness now enveloped them, thickening and growing deeper until he was in a husky cocoon of blackness.  “Darius?” he said into the darkness to make sure the boy was still there, suddenly paranoid of being alone.  Which direction was the flag?  

“Here,” Darius replied to his right.  “I-” he was cut off by a cry.  Will swore.  He recognized that cry.  Clarisse.  Suddenly, he could hear the sound of blades clinging.  More than one...Gods, the prisoners.  How did they escape?  Darius was in combat, he could hear it.

Good.  He could distract them, Will was going to defend the flag.  He turned around, only to find himself gazing into ebon eyes, dark matty hair sticking out from underneath a small helmet.  The blunted blade came at Will’s gut and the son of Apollo gasped, doubling over.  When he looked up, the kid was gone.  

“Shit,” he whispered, turning around.  He couldn’t see anything.  Suddenly, he was there again, kicking Will’s feet out from under him.  Will gasped, falling hard on his back and he rolled out of the way as a black sword tried to impale his leg into the ground.  Where the hell was this kid?!

He scrambled to his feet.  He had dropped his bow, and there was no way he could find it in this black haze so he half heartedly drew his blade from his sheath, raising it protectively.  Then, he was being attacked from all sides.  By the same person.  By the same kid.  He would slash at him from side, then vanish into darkness, appearing on the other.  It was like facing five of him.  Will could barely keep up his defenses, sweat and grime dripping down his face as he tried to keep the kid back.  

A foot caught his chest and he was launched backwards, exploding out of the mist and onto the ground.  He could see again.  It was like a smoke bomb had gone off, encasing the area surrounding the flag.  The shadows parted and from it, emerged Nico Di Angelo.  

The kid glared down at him, the blonde boy who lay on his back, gazing up at Nico with fear in his eyes.  He could easily admit he was afraid of him.  A son of Hades.  A son of the Big Three...and this was the first time he had witnessed his powers first hand.

Clarisse erupted from the shadows in a sprint, clutching the blue flag in her hand.  “Shit!” Will shouted, standing up.  He went to go after her, but Nico was suddenly in his way, holding his black sword at Will’s throat.  His blade had to angle upward, Nico was way shorter than him, but it kept Will still.  And following Clarisse were the three prisoners that he had tied to the tree.  Darius didn’t follow.  He must have been knocked out.

“Let it go, Di Angelo.  You already won.”

His words were shortly followed by the sound of a horn and Will closed his eyes, giving a sigh.  Once the horn echoed through the trees, Nico dropped the dark blade from his neck, sheathing it back at his side.  Will stood up, eyeing Nico carefully and burshed the dirt off of his faded jeans.  He extended his hand politely, his blue eyes glimmering.  “Good game.  You did okay.”

Nico hesitated, watching the hand like it might explode on touch.  Finally, he took it, responding to Will’s firm shake with a weak one.  “You, too.”  

Nico watched with silence as Clarisse took the glory for the red team’s victory.  He didn’t mind.  She came up with the plan.  She’s the one who had taken the flag across the river.  He was just one of the people in the background.  A pawn in a game.  

So he was surprised when Clarisse approached him while he relaxed in the shade of an oak tree.  Her helmet was again tucked under her arm, her stringy black hair frizzy and tangled, but somehow it suit the girl.  The hard look was gone from her eyes, replaced by one that was maybe...cocky?

“You liked it,” she stated, giving him a grin.  

She spoke of the game.  “It was a way to pass time.  Better than doing nothing, I guess.”  

Clarisse rolled her eyes.  “Right.  Well, I didn’t come over here for you to lie to me.”  She cringed, as if her next words were painful to utter.  “You...you fought well.”

“I attacked from the shadows.  He didn’t even know I was there.”  Nico heaved a sigh, looking down.  It was barely even a fair fight.  Will wasn’t proficient with a blade.  Nico faded in and out of the shade to continuously have the advantage of a surprise attack.  He technically cheated.

“I wouldn’t have won without you, Nico,” she rushed out.  A blush rose up on her cheeks and she gritted her teeth with frustration.  She hated admitting things that suggested that she needed anyone’s help.  “I mean,” she muttered.  “Who else would I have used to distract Will?  Later, Nico.”  

She spun around, jogging towards a couple of her cabin mates who gave her high fives, laughing and talking, probably about how Clarisse single handedly managed to capture the flag and bring honor and glory to her team.  

Nico didn’t mind.  She could gloat and boast as much as she wanted.  Fame wasn’t what he wanted out of that game.

He finally got the respect that he had been looking for.  And that was enough for Nico.


End file.
